


Long Way Up

by incurableinsanity



Series: Winterhawk Shorts [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: And so is Bucky, Clint's A Dork, Elevators, M/M, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a grown ass child, based off an AU prompt, bit of fluff for good measure, but not actually an AU, but still manages to get good things, in which Clint is a child, mentioned Steve/Tony, pride contest, sniper husbands, sort of, sorta feely, who does childish things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 17:54:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4231263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incurableinsanity/pseuds/incurableinsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Then Clint sees Bucky reach over with his left hand a little and the door starts to close. Oh. Hell. No."</p><p>Or:</p><p>the "I saw you trying to hit the “door close” button in the elevator but I made it in and then I pushed every single button to make you later for work, but now we’re stuck in this fucking elevator as it stops at every single floor and I don’t know what to say other than “you started it” AU" -based fiction</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Way Up

**Author's Note:**

> Also available in Русский ([x](https://ficbook.net/readfic/3351375)) 
> 
> Based off the tumblr prompt found [here](http://jonahryan.tumblr.com/post/117050708072/aus-for-when-your-otp-are-both-assholes)
> 
> Rather than make it an AU, I adjusted slightly to fit it into canon universe.

Stark’s tower has ninety-three floors, a roof, landing pad, six elevators (not including the private ones), two really tall sets of stairs (again, not including the private ones in the Avengers space), a two-story penthouse that takes up the top two floors, a floor for each of the Avengers, a gym, a pool, a gun range, a separate archery range, a communal living space, several floors for Tony _and_ Bruce’s labs, a dozen office floors, and a bunch of other things Clint doesn’t even know about.

Overall, Avengers tower is huge – and unnecessarily so, but that’s just Tony Stark being Tony freakin' Stark.

Clint could navigate the tower via the vents after spending two and a half days learning the way they ran, but he still prefers to take the elevators when he wants to get back up to the highest floors.

 

Stepping into the lobby, Clint carries a coffee and a paper bag from Dunkin Donuts. Usually, he just eats in the kitchen on the communal floor for breakfast, but Tony and Steve were doing that weird stare down thing that made him find the nearest vent ASAP.

Plus, Dunkin Donuts made good coffee.

Clint heads toward the nearest private elevator that will take him up to the Avengers’ levels when he sees one open with someone stepping into it. Usually the elevators require an access code that is different for each Avenger and the others who have gained access to the levels, but Clint’s life is always easier when it’s already open (Plus, sometimes they can take forever to get to the 1st floor when they’re all on high floors – even the ones that only go to Avenger-Only levels).

That one person is actually Bucky Barnes, reformed HYDRA puppet extraordinaire. Clint’s never really gotten to know Bucky, on the account of him usually stealing away Natasha or hiding behind Steve when Steve isn’t making eyes at Tony (and wow, Clint really needs to stop thinking about them). He does, however, on the nights he can’t sleep, wander to sometimes see Bucky on the gun range shooting target after target, sometimes with a rifle and other times with a pistol. Clint’s had the urge to talk to him more than once, but always resists. What can he say to a guy who’s been through all that shit he did? So he doesn’t, and he makes his way to the archery range so he can shoot until the sun comes up.

Clint would call out if he wasn’t currently taking a sip of the coffee, but Bucky does miraculously look up and – lo and behold – make eye contact with Clint.

Then Clint sees Bucky reach over with his left hand a little and the door starts to close.

 

Oh.

Hell.

No.

 

Clint sprints for the elevator, somehow not dropping his coffee or bag, and slides in just before the elevator closes.

Clint shoots a withering look at Bucky, but Bucky’s staring at the now closed doors with an impassive face.

Clint doesn’t know what he ever did to the guy to get shut out of the elevator. Clint glares at the only button that’s currently lit – floor ninety (the communal level) – and switches the bag to his coffee hand so he can reach out to press eighty-eight (Clint’s floor, just under Cap’s and over Nat’s).

However, at the last second, Clint’s hand swerves accidentally-on-purpose, and does a whole sweep down the three columns of buttons.

Now every button except ninety-one, -two, and -three are lit.

Clint pulls his hand back, some sort of self-satisfaction run downs his spine and he takes a sip of coffee to hide the grin that wants to form. He risks a look at Bucky, whose face is still impassive but is not tense and eyes shining with something.

The elevator begins its ascent and Clint settles back against the wall.

 

When the elevator finally opens at floor five after four and a half minutes, Clint realizes his mistake.

He’s stuck in this stupid elevator with the guy that tried to shut him out of it. He scowls, mostly at himself, for his stupidity. Clint goes to take a long sip of his coffee.

He glares when he finds it’s empty.

God damn it.

He mumbles under his breath for a second and looks up when the elevator opens at floor six. He could get out, catch another elevator. But that would defeat the purpose of fucking with Bucky and getting back at him. If Clint leaves, what’s to say Bucky won’t do the same? Clint doesn’t know Bucky very well, but he does know Bucky’s got a sense of pride, and he won’t leave the elevator while Clint’s still in it just to prove that it’s not bothering him.

He side eyes Bucky just to see Bucky scowling in his direction.

He tenses, ready to quip something witty – except he can’t think of something to say so the first thing that leaves his mouth is: “You started it.”

Bucky rolls his eyes at that and crosses his arms.

Clint turns back to stare at the buttons while the elevator makes its way to floor seven.

It’s gonna be a long ride.

 

 

 

 

At floor eleven, Clint starts to eat his bagel. It’s not warm anymore, but he’s starving because all he wanted was to eat breakfast but Tony and Steve had to be idiots and now he’s stuck in an elevator with Bucky-Scowling-Barnes for the next however long it takes out of some stupid pride contest he didn’t even intend on starting.

 _Way to go Barton_ , Clint mentally berates as he tears into his bagel. _No wonder Nat calls you an idiot._ Maybe Nat usually meant it fondly, but still. Clint knows he has his moments of recklessness and stupidity, he just can’t stop himself.

Circus kids weren’t really taught how to be all that safe, really.

Clint hears a stomach growl quietly. Which makes no sense because he’s eating so why – oh. Clint subtly looks over at Barnes, who still looks the same: standing close to the front left corner, arms crossed, and staring at the door.

Bucky’s stomach growls again.

Clint raises an eyebrow. He looks at Bucky for a long moment, and slowly the very tips of Bucky’s ears turn light pink. Clint glances at his half-eaten bagel, then at Bucky.

Then in a moment of extreme childishness, takes a huge bite.

Clint decides to be petty because Bucky is the reason he’s in this mess in the first place.

He eats the rest of his bagel.

 

 

 

 

When the elevator opens at floor fifteen, Clint throws his garbage from his position, and it lands perfectly in the waste basket sitting just outside and to the left of the elevator.

Bucky raises an eyebrow.

 

 

 

 

At floor twenty-one, someone happens to look at the elevator when it opens.

Clint glares at him until she looks away. Out of the corner of his eye, Bucky’s glaring at her too.

 

 

 

 

“This is ridiculous.”

Clint finally throws his hands up at floor twenty-seven. Bucky snorts.

“You did this,” He tells Clint.

“You started it!” Clint defends. “You tried to shut the elevator doors on me!”

Bucky deigns not to answer. Clint crosses his arms moodily.

 

 

 

 

On floor thirty-three: “Why’d you shut the doors on me?”

“I didn’t.”

 

 

 

 

Floor thirty-six: “I mean, it’s not like I did anything to you that I know of. Did I eat your leftovers? I did that to Steve once and he made sad faces until I cooked him something.”

Bucky exhales through his nose sharply.

 

 

 

 

“It’s the company.”

Clint jumps out of his train of thought when Bucky speaks up on floor forty.

“The what?” Clint frowns.

“I’m…” Bucky shifts uncomfortably, the first time he’s really moved since twenty-something floors ago. “I’m not comfortable with people I don’t know well.”

“Huh,” Clint says, because what can he say to that? Well, for one: “Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye. I’m the best shot on this planet. I like peanut butter, coffee, sandwiches, takeout, and dogs. I hate when Tony and Steve make eyes at each other because it makes me wish they would sort out their sexual tension already and spare us all the headache. I can speak eight languages and know six ways to kill someone with an eraser.”

Bucky looks back, surprised and startled. He frowns, brow furrowing. Clint shoots him a winning smile. Bucky’s lips twitch back into a neutral expression before a ghost of a smile appears.

“Bucky Barnes. Once the Winter Soldier, now an Avenger. I’m not sure what I like yet, but I’m figuring it out. I hate Steve and Tony actin’ like a bunch of idiots, too. I know a lot more Russian than I used to and know ten ways to kills someone with an eraser. Also, I think I’m a better shot than you,” Bucky drawls in his Brooklyn accent, “Nice to meet you Clint Barton.”

Of course Bucky would try and show him up. Clint’s smile turns into a grin, “Pleasure’s all mine Bucky Barnes. Maybe you’ll have to put your money where your mouth is.”

 

 

 

 

“You know,” Clint says as they move on from floor forty-nine, “it’s weird.”

“What is?” Bucky asks. He had shifted once their introduction was done to lean against the wall and face toward Clint instead of the doors.

“Just,” Clint shrugs, “that we never really met before. I figured Steve or Nat would of forced us together, maybe Nat more than Steve.”

“Why would she?”

“She thinks you and I are similar.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, we both have dashing good looks,” Clint says and Bucky huffs a laugh. “Similar skill sets and all that.”

“Snipers,” Bucky dips his head in agreement. Clint likes meeting a fellow sniper, especially since SHIELD didn’t have all that many designated snipers, just a lot of operatives that could shoot a rifle.

“She also said she thinks our sense of humor is terrible.” Bucky laughs shortly at that and Clint sports a wry grin. He could also mention that Nat’s mentioned their similar experience in mind control, but he won’t. Because while the mere thought of the Battle of New York no longer sends Clint into a panic attack, he still gets nightmares from time to time and he suspects he’ll never really be over it. Besides, what was three days to seventy years?

Bucky says he remembers bits and pieces, but Clint remembers every second since the blue of the scepter touched him in the chest and forced him against his own people.

(Some days, Clint wonders how many SHIELD agents he had killed that day were actually HYDRA – and then he decides that train of thought isn’t worth it and goes to shoot arrows until his fingers bleed.)

The silence that resumes is comfortable.

 

 

 

 

At floor fifty-eight, Clint hears Bucky’s stomach growl again. Bucky’s ears turn pink.

“Sorry,” Clint tells him, “Should’ve given you that bagel.”

“Well, we were being pretty angry at each other.” Clint silently agrees. “I’ll eat when I get there. That’s where I was going anyway.”

“Hopefully, Steve and Tony will have cleared out by now,” Clint adds.

“One can only hope.”

 

 

 

 

Clint yawns around floor sixty-three. He slouches against the wall. He hasn’t slept well in a few days and last night he got maybe three solid hours before he just couldn’t stay asleep.

Twelve seconds pass before Bucky yawns. The once Soldier makes a face.

“Thanks Barton.”

Clint throws him a salute as he sits on the floor. At this point, they could probably both just find another elevator, but for some reason, they don’t.

Clint ends up falling asleep.

 

 

 

 

The archer startles awake with fading laughter echoing in his mind. He glances up; he’s only at floor seventy-two. It hasn’t even been ten minutes yet. Clint rubs at his eyes, tired.

There isn’t much more he could say about it. He’s always tired. Ever since New Mexico, when the scepter screwed him up and over, his life has gone completely sideways. Clint could slide undercover with the best of them (almost on par with Nat), could wait fifteen hours for a shot in deep snow in Russia, could sneak in and out of a complex within an hour undetected, and could make any shot. But Clint couldn’t always handle the sudden influx of all things strange: the gods, the aliens, the weird villains, and the mind-fuckery. Sometimes it was all Clint could do to keep up with his team of enhanced soldiers and gods and rage monsters and technical geniuses.

Clint’s just the guy with a bow and arrow, and sometimes, it’s hard.

 

“Clint?” Bucky calls quietly, and Clint’s gaze shoots over to him – he forgot Bucky was there. Bucky had move while Clint was asleep, sitting near enough to touch but not entirely brushing shoulders.

“I’m good,” Clint tells him. Bucky looks at him for a long moment.

“Bullshit.” Bucky says. Clint blinks.

“What?” Maybe he misheard?

“I don’t think you’re all that good,” Bucky’s got a face on that’s similar to Steve’s determined face and Clint’s a bit scared, to be honest. “You look exhausted, despite the fact that you just had coffee not all that long ago. You woke up breathing pretty hard, too. And some nights, if I want to explore the tower, I find you shooting arrows at three in the morning with a weird look on your face.”

Clint’s not entirely sure what to say. He’s still processing that Bucky had been watching Clint like Clint had been watching him. Nat’s right: they’re a lot more similar than Clint thought.

“Yeah, well, you don’t look too good yourself, hotshot,” Clint quietly replies – it’s the closest thing to an agreement he’ll get. He kind of thinks Bucky will just blow him off, but instead Bucky nods a little.

“I guess not.” There’s a long silence as the elevator opens up on floor seventy-five. Clint looks at Bucky, who looks back before glancing at his metal hand. “It’s the little things. The company of people I don’t know – I don’t know their threat level. The instinct of that is still in me. The things I can and can’t remember, from both my time in HYDRA and in the war with Steve. Getting used to this century and all that. It’s a lot.”

Clint nods, then glances back at the numbers as it steadily climbs to the next floor and pauses as it opens. He waits until the doors close again.

“Sometimes,” Clint informs Bucky, “sometimes, I feel out of place on the team. Everyone’s special in some enhanced way, and I’m not. Someone like Steve takes a hit, and he’s back up in a day. I take a hit and I’m in bed for a week. I got on the team mostly because at the time they needed a pilot. I was just waking up from….” Clint trails off. He’s not sure if he wants to share.

“Clint?” Bucky isn’t being pushy, just reassuring. Bucky’s letting him know he doesn’t have to continue. But it’s not fair to Bucky if he’s the only one to spill. If there’s anything the two of them know deeply, it’s this and maybe Bucky deserves to know he’s got someone with shared experience.

 

“The Battle of New York,” Clint changes track a little. “What do you know about it?”

“Not much,” Bucky answers, “Steve told me about it.”

“The god – Thor’s brother – that attacked the city with the Chitauri, had this scepter. Shot energy, controlled people. When he showed up in New Mexico, I was watching over the base at Fury’s orders. He thought something was wrong with one of the scientists. When the god came, he used the scepter against me, took my will away.” Clint exhales. “For three days I killed SHIELD agents, guards at a facility, and led an invasion on the helicarrier that took too many lives before it was stopped. Nat got him out of my head and was with me when Steve asked her if she knew how to fly one of the quinjets. I did so I came along.”

“And you’ve been an Avenger ever since,” Bucky finishes and Clint just nods. He watches for the long seconds it takes for the door to open on seventy-eight and then close again.

“It’s not seventy years.”

“That doesn’t make it any less valid.” Clint hazards a glance at the stern tone and tenses at the sharp look Bucky has. “Just because it may not have been as long, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t still horrifying all the same. Don’t think that it’s not important because it is. Got it?”

Clint manages a nod.

“Good, and don’t think you’re out of place here either. You were SHIELD’s top agent and you’re smarter than you look.”

“Okay.” Clint allows. “Same to you. You survived a lot of shit to get here. Don’t waste this.”

“You got it pal,” Bucky nudges Clint with his elbow and a playful smile.

Clint did not think his childish stupidity that took over in the lobby would lead to this kind of conversation with Bucky Barnes of all people.

Certainly not the strangest day in Clint Barton’s tragedy he called a life, but it might be up there.

 

 

 

 

Clint forgoes his floor to get off with Bucky to grab food in the kitchen. He trails after Bucky, seeing only Tony – no sign of Steve – talking to JARVIS about date setting and restaurants and maybe Tony and Steve finally got their heads out of their asses.

Clint’s all the way at the counter before he falters.

They could have asked JARVIS to just reset all the elevator buttons.

Clint face-palms.

Dragging his hand away from his face, Clint sighs. He’s about to curse himself out mentally, but he takes a look at Bucky, who’s staring into the fridge with intensity, his tongue stuck between his teeth. Bucky who he really, finally, met today, and who the archer thinks is kind of attractive (and he doesn’t want to go down that road, not just yet – but maybe someday).

Still, Clint never wants to be in an elevator for that long ever again.

 

 

 

 

 

(When Clint and Bucky start dating four months later, it’s because Nat decides to lock them in an elevator for six hours.)

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> My [tumblr](http://torii-storii.tumblr.com/)


End file.
